Carbon dioxide (CO2) lasers typically produce laser light in the infrared spectrum at around a 10.6 μm wavelength and are useful in many commercial, medical, and military applications (including, for example, engraving, cutting, etcetera). According to one conventional design for a carbon dioxide laser, aluminum electrodes that produce, confine, and cool the plasma formed between them are contained within a vacuum enclosure, also comprised of aluminum. Such a design requires the resonator coils to be inside the vacuum tight, gas-filled enclosure and is generally complicated by many parts. This design also necessitates one or more electrical feed-throughs to make connection to the electrodes and provide power to the plasma, while maintaining a vacuum seal. These feed-throughs present a weak point in the laser, as they tend to run hot due to the RF skin effect. Another known design for a carbon dioxide laser employs a ceramic bore which acts as an optical waveguide and/or a free space propagation path for the laser radiation and also confines the electrical discharge for exciting the carbon dioxide gas. In either instance, because the beam of light interacts to various degrees with the walls of the bore (depending on bore size), the shape and optical finish of the bore are critical to the performance of the laser. It becomes necessary to increase the gain length by folding the laser cavity into multiple serial beam paths to achieve higher power output, but the complexity of the ceramic grinding to accommodate these multiple paths and the number of mirrors required becomes problematic.